Jobseeker's Allowance without Public Services Card

I want to claim Jobseeker's Allowance. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is telling me that I need a Public Services Card in order to claim this benefit. However, I don't want to get one.

It's been argued that there is no legal basis for the Public Services Card. This was argued—convincingly, to my mind—before an Oireachtas committee, the Joint Committee on Employment Affairs and Social Protection, by a Dublin solicitor named Simon McGarr.

At the same hearing, Mr McGarr told the story of a woman who was in receipt of child benefit and was told by the Department that, in order to retain this benefit, she would have to get a Public Services Card. She engaged him to assist her. The end of the story is that she is continuing to get child benefit without having had to get a Public Services Card. This suggests that the Department will back down if the applicant is resolute.

My question is: can I get Jobseeker's Allowance without a Public Services Card? If so, how exactly do I go about it? Do I need to hire a solicitor?

I want to claim Jobseeker's Allowance. The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is telling me that I need a Public Services Card in order to claim this benefit. However, I don't want to get one.

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And why exactly do you not want to get a card? What information would you have to give to the state to get a card, that will not in some way be needed in order to access state services and will not be recorded by the state in some form or another?